Crystal Lake watchdog Donald Kountz expressed his opposition to enacting a new one percentage point sales tax on Water’s Edge.
He had previously submitted an eviscerating critique on Tesla & Associates’ report justifying imposition of the tax, which you can read in the link to the post below:
Below is what happened at City Council, according to Kountz:
The opinions or beliefs of the city council were we said we were going to do this when we established the TIF.
“The area remains blighted. (without blight they can not impose the additional tax.)
[See what Kountz’ had to say the Tax Increment District annual report on Water’s Edge below:
“It’s not an issue, the additional tax is only on the four parcels, if citizens don’t want to pay the tax they can shop somewhere else.
“We need to offer incentives to bring high end restaurants to Crystal Lake.” (Brady said Algonquin gave Coopers Hawk $1M to come to town. I never saw that).
{Research showed Algonquin gave a one-time sales tax rebate totaling $554,332 to Kensington Enclave LLC for the Enclave which includes Portillo’s Raising Cane’s BJ’s Brewhouse Belle Tire and Cooper’s Hawk.)
The mayor said we have to offer incentives to get over the finish line.
The plan as written is for up to $23M and it gave the city up to $10M to fund building construction.
It also gave the city the option to borrow money.
The vote was 6-1 with only Brett Hopkins voting “No.”
Sadly, Crystal Lake cannot support a second full time high end restaurant.
1776 is only open 4 days a week.
This tells me there are not enough butts in seats to stay in business and be open 5-7 days a week.
NW Herald mentioned talks with a high end breakfast restaurant.
While Kountz reviewed the Business Plan as written and documented the cases of “blighted area” no longer existed, members of the city council want to incentivize a high end restaurant to open a location on Route 14.
Might one, who knows with up to $23M in tax payer money on the table.
Kountz further observes,
Crystal Lake used to have and probably still does an ordinance that allowed them to rebate a portion of sales tax for any new business that generates more than $3M in yearly sales.
It also allows rebates of sales tax for business expansion.
It is used every time a car dealer wants to expand.
I haven’t had time to find it.
What is different here?
1. It’s an additional tax and
2. It allows the city to advance not rebate the money. Reviewing the city budget, Crystal Lake receives almost $16M in municipal sales tax from all sources within the city, how are 4-7 businesses going to generate sales tax to repay a large advancement.
The citizens of Crystal Lake will be on the hook for the interest on every penny advanced.
